High alkaline warewash detergent with enhanced scale control and soil dispersion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9353335-B2
Application number	US-201414536845-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2014
Priority date	Nov 11, 2013
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

Detergent compositions and methods of preparing and using the detergent compositions are disclosed. The detergent compositions comprise a polymer system comprising at least one polycarboxylic acid polymer, copolymer, or terpolymer, an alkalinity source comprising an alkali metal carbonate, a nonionic surfactant and water. The detergent compositions are suitable at alkaline pH and reduce or prevent scale formation, improve soil dispersion, and provide effective detergency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A concentrated detergent comprising:
from about 0.01 wt. % and about 20 wt. % of a polymer system comprising
(a) a polymaleic acid homopolymer in an amount of about 25 wt. % to about 55 wt. % of the polymer system;
(b) an acrylic acid copolymer in an amount of about 25 wt. % to about 55 wt. % of the polymer system;
(c) a maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer in an amount of about 5 wt. % to about 35 wt. % of the polymer system;

an alkalinity source comprising an alkali metal carbonate;
a nonionic surfactant; and
water;
wherein said detergent has an alkaline pH.

2. The detergent of claim 1 , wherein said polymaleic acid homopolymer is between about 30 wt. % and about 50 wt. % of the polymer system.

3. The detergent of claim 1 , wherein said acrylic acid copolymer is between about 30 wt. % and about 50 wt. % of the polymer system.

4. The detergent of claim 3 , wherein said polymaleic acid homopolymer, acrylic acid copolymer, and maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer are present in a ratio between about 1:1:1 to about 3:3:1.

5. The detergent of claim 1 , wherein maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer is present between about 7 wt. % and about 30 wt. % of the polymer system.

6. The detergent of claim 1 , wherein said detergent composition comprises between about 0 wt. % and about 20 wt. % polymer system, between about 50 wt. % and about 99 wt. % alkalinity source, between about 0 wt. % and about 15 wt. % nonionic surfactant, and between about 0 wt. % and about 20 wt. % water.

7. The detergent of claim 1 , wherein said detergent is substantially free of phosphorus.

8. A concentrated warewash detergent comprising:
between about 0 wt. % and about 15 wt. % of a polymer system comprising:
(a) at least one polymaleic acid homopolymer in an amount of about 25 wt. % to about 55 wt. % of the polymer system,
(b) at least one polyacrylic acid copolymer in an amount of about 25 wt. % to about 55 wt. % of the polymer system, and
(c) at least one maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer in an amount of about 5 wt. % to about 35 wt. % of the polymer system;

between about 50 wt. % and about 99 wt. % of an alkali metal carbonate;
between about 0 wt. % and about 15 wt. % of a nonionic surfactant; and
water;
wherein said detergent has a pH between about 7 and about 14 and wherein the at least one polymaleic acid homopolymer, at least one polyacrylic acid copolymer, and at least one maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer are in a ratio of between about 1:1:1 and about 3:3:1.

9. The warewash detergent of claim 8 , wherein said polymer system comprises between about 30 wt. % to about 50 wt. % polymaleic acid homopolymer, between about 30 wt. % to about 50 wt. % polyacrylic acid copolymer, and between about 7 wt. % to about 30 wt. % maleic anhydride/olefin copolymer.

10. The warewash detergent of claim 8 , wherein the detergent contains less than 0.5 wt. % phosphorus.

11. The warewash detergent of claim 8 , wherein the polymers, copolymers, and/or terpolymers of the polymer system have molecular weights between about 100 and about 10,000.

12. The warewash detergent of claim 8 , wherein said detergent contains at least one additional functional ingredient selected from the group consisting of defoaming agents, anti-redeposition agents, bleaching agents, enzymes, surfactants, solubility modifiers, dispersants, rinse aids, metal protecting agents, stabilizing agents, corrosion inhibitors, additional sequestrants and/or chelating agents, fragrances and/or dyes, rheology modifiers or thickeners, hydrotropes or couplers, buffers, solvents, and combinations thereof.

13. A method of using a warewash detergent of claim 8 comprising:
forming a use solution with said warewash detergent;
contacting a surface with said use solution;
cleaning said surface with said use solution.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said warewash detergent is substantially free of phosphorus.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein said warewash detergent is present in the use solution between about 200 ppm and about 10,000 ppm.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein said warewash detergent is present in the use solution between about 500 ppm and about 4000 ppm.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein said polymer system is present in the use solution between about 1 and about 500 ppm.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein said surface is a ware.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein said method provides substantially similar cleaning performance to a method employing a phosphorus-containing detergent.

Assignees

• Ecolab Usa Inc

Inventors

• Dotzauer David
• Meier Timothy
• Silvernail Carter M
• Mansergh John

Classifications

• C11D3/10

  Carbonates {; Bicarbonates} · CPC title

• C11D3/3757 Primary

  (Co)polymerised carboxylic acids, -anhydrides, -esters in solid and liquid compositions · CPC title

• C11D1/66 Primary

  Non-ionic compounds {(C11D1/002, C11D1/004, C11D1/008 take precedence)} · CPC title

• C11D3/3765

  in liquid compositions · CPC title

• C11D3/365

  containing carboxyl groups · CPC title